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Robert A. Heinlein

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Blog article: William H. Patterson, Jr.: “The New Yorker knows who I am” (2011)

The author [Lawrence Wright] contacted me when a high church official 1 said the biography confirmed that Heinlein as Hubbard’s naval intelligence handler sent Hubbard to Jack Parsons to break up “black magic” practice.

The author of the article2 noted that the biography doesn’t say anything about this. He contacted me by email and we had a short exchange a couple of months ago in which I said I had investigated that claim on behalf of the Scientologists but had found no evidence for the claim.3

Notes

  1. Church spokesperson Tommy Davis ↩
  2. The New Yorker article: The Apostate ↩
  3. Patterson, W. H. (2011, 13 February). The New Yorker knows who I am. whpattersonjr.com. Retrieved on 24 February 2011 from http://www.whpattersonjr.com/blog/index.php ↩

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Factchecking: The Apostate (2011)

In his Paul Haggis profile in The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright touched on Hubbard’s involvement with Jack Parsons and quoted some new claims in this story made by Scientology spokesperson Tommy Davis about Hubbard and Robert Heinlein.

After the war, Hubbard’s marriage dissolved1, and he moved to Pasadena2, where he became the housemate of Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist who belonged to an occult society called the Ordo Templi Orientis. An atmosphere of hedonism pervaded the house; Parsons hosted gatherings involving “sex magick” rituals.

In a 1946 letter, Parsons described Hubbard: “He is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent.” Parsons then mentioned his wife’s sister, Betty Northrup, with whom he had been having an affair. “Although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to Ron.” One day, Hubbard and Northrup ran off together. In the official Scientology literature, it is claimed that Hubbard was assigned by naval intelligence to infiltrate Parsons’s occult group. “Hubbard broke up black magic in America,” the church said in a statement.

[…]

At the meeting, Davis brought up Jack Parsons’s black-magic society, which Hubbard had supposedly infiltrated. Davis said, “He was sent in there by Robert Heinlein”—the science-fiction writer—“who was running off-book intelligence operations for naval intelligence at the time.” Davis said, “A biography that just came out three weeks ago on Bob Heinlein actually confirmed it at a level that we’d never been able to before.” The book to which Davis was referring is the first volume of an authorized Heinlein biography, by William H. Patterson, Jr.3 There is no mention in the book of Heinlein’s sending Hubbard to break up the Parsons ring, on the part of naval intelligence or any other organization. Patterson says that he looked into the matter, at the suggestion of Scientologists, but found nothing.4

Notes

  1. Hubbard married Sara his second wife bigamously while still married to Polly. Ref. Barefaced Messiah, p. 129 ↩
  2. In November 1945, Hubbard lived with Robert A. and Leslyn Heinlein at 8777 Lookout Mountain Avenue, Hollywood 46, California. (Heinlein archives: CORR331-02; Patterson, W. H., (2010). Robert A. Heinlein, In Dialogue with his Century, pp. 370, 371.) In December 1945, Hubbard moved to 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, CA, residence of Jack Parsons and the Agape Lodge. (Patterson, 2010). ↩
  3. Patterson, W. H. (2010). Robert A. Heinlein: In dialogue with his century. New York: Tor. ↩
  4. Wright, L. (2011, 7 February). The Apostate. thenewyorker.com. Retrieved 7 February 2011 from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright#ixzz1DFbV4pDc ↩

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Web article: Whence Came the Stranger: Tracking the Metapattern of Stranger in a Strange Land (1993)

The premise of this fascinating article is that Robert A. Heinlein wrote Stranger in a Strange Land as an “allegorical recapitulation of Thelema.” Author Adam Rostoker1, 2 links Stranger to the Babalon Working through the words of Parsons’ “scribe,” L. Ron Hubbard.

In 1961 Robert Anson Heinlein published a novel about a young Martian named Valentine Michael Smith. The book, Stranger in a Strange Land (Stranger), burst from its modest initial reception in science fiction circles to become one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Its concepts molded the critical thinking of many important social movements and paved the way for that astonishing period of social, religious, and sexual reclamation that is misleadingly dubbed “the 60s.”[1] Arriving, as it did, at a nadir of American free thought and at a peak of media censorship, Stranger’s publication was a minor miracle and its later mainstream success has always been considered a first class fluke. It became the first science novel to penetrate public consciousness since the days of Verne and Wells and initiated an unprecedented era of respectability for science fiction that opened the door for the Star Trek, 2001 and Star Wars. Stranger also marked a radical departure of form, not only for the author, but for American thought and expression in general. Stranger was the quintessence that transformed the nation’s repressively conformist, post-war paranoia into the overtly sensual, erudite, cynical optimism that epitomized the years preceding the Reagan administration.

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This recalls Heinlein’s link with Parsons. As a part of the Babalon Working, Parsons ‘received’ a short ‘book’ entitled Liber 49 or The Book of Babalon. Parsons claims it was the fourth chapter to Liber Legis, a claim which made him less than popular with Crowley and the OTO. Regardless of this claim, it is a powerful text that deals mostly with the coming of the Thelemic heir. There are two parts in particular that stand out after reading Stranger. The first is part of the channeled instructions to Parsons for the ritual — it advises him to clear his mind in preparation: “Consult no book but thine own mind. Thou art god. Behave at this altar as one god before another.” [101] It is interesting to note that these words were mouthed, not by Parsons, but by his Scribe, L. Ron Hubbard, who was close friends with Heinlein at about the same time the latter was working on his first shot at Stranger. The other Babalon Working quote which stands out, and there are many quotes which are not so overt, comes from Liber 49 which Parsons channeled alone out in the desert — e.g., sans Hubbard: “37 For I am BABALON, and she my daughter, unique, and there shall be no other women like her. 38. In My Name shall she have all power, and all men and excellent things, and kings and captains and the secret ones at her command. 39. The first servants are chosen in secret, by my force in her – a captain, a lawyer, an agitator, a rebel – I shall provide.” (Italics added) 3
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[1] Most of “the 60s” as a popular movement didn’t even start until around ’65 and didn’t really end until well after Nixon got re-elected in ’72. The most active period occurred between 1968-74 and in fact, most of “the ’60s” are still happening. Referring to “the 60s” quarantines a radical, ongoing, whole systems transition and reduces it to a mere historical fad.

[101] The Collected Works of Jack Parsons, OTO, NY from the “First Ritual of the Book of Babalon”.

Notes

  1. About Adam Rostoker: Los Angeles Times 16 March 1997: Clues Scarce in Slaying of Neo-Pagan ↩
  2. Ashlund, Pam (1993) Adam Rostoker: Walking Between Worlds, Not of this World (any longer) ↩
  3. Rostoker, Adam (1993) Whence Came the Stranger: Tracking the Metapattern of Stranger in a Strange Land. Retrieved on 18 January 2011 from http://firehead.org/~pturing/occult/grok/thelema.htm. ↩

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HCOPL: Legal and Dissemination (1968)

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
HCO POLICY LETTER OF 10 AUGUST 1968

Remimeo
(Originally a Sec ED)

LEGAL AND DISSEMINATION

Never stop dissemination to iron out legal! Never, Never, Never. The $250,000 LA foundation folded because it did just that under Admiral Scoles1 and J. B. Farber.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder2

Notes

  1. Heinlein apparently introduced Scoles and Hubbard. See, e.g., Letter: Lieut. Commander A. B. Scoles to Robert Heinlein. ↩
  2. Hubbard, L. R. (10 August 1968). HCOPL Legal and Dissemination The Organization Executive Course Public Division Volume 6 (1991 ed., Vol. 6, p. 82). Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, Inc. ↩

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Heinlein archives: Navy Department Personal History Statement: Robert Heinlein (1951)

Source: Heinlein archives (ANNA201a-8)
Date: 5 February 1951

On 20 February 1933, Heinlein was sent on sick leave and lived at 1210 Valencia Way, Arcadia, CA for three months and then in Monrovia, California, both while being treated at the Pottenger Sanatorium. In the fall of 1933, he was transferred to Fitzsimmons Hospital, Denver1, and was placed on “sick in quarters” until his retirement early in 1934. 2

Notes

  1. Wikipedia: Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center ↩
  2. The Heinlein archives include several medical reports from Dr. Pottenger. Ref. ANNA201a-9.) ↩

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Letter: Robert Heinlein to John Arwine (1946)

Vida does not resemble your mother. She looks like a wood nymph. You like her. You do not love her to desperation. You are not jealous of her. She thrills you physically and you enjoy her.

— L. Ron Hubbard (ca. 1946) 1

Source: The Heinlein Archives (CORR220-3)
Re: Vida Jameson, Jack Parsons, Sara Northrup, L. Ron Hubbard. (Relevant sections paraphrased)

Heinlein wrote that he and his wife had hoped to hear more about what Hubbard was doing in New York, and that he didn’t understand Hubbard’s current activities.  Heinlein said he was considerably disturbed on Hubbard’s account, thought Hubbard wasn’t doing himself any good, and that  Hubbard appeared to be on some sort of a “Big Operator tear,” not getting straightened out or re-established in his writing.

Heinlein wrote that because he introduced Hubbard to Arwine he felt “obligated” to advise Arwine not to get his “affairs tied in” with Hubbard at all and to keep Hubbard “at arm’s length.” Heinlein surmised that Hubbard had probably told Arwine about the “involved business deals” in which he was engaged with “Jack Parsons and Betty.” Heinlein wrote that they might “make a lot of money,” but that he had “no taste for  business enterprises of this type.”  Heinlein said he was offering this free advice to Arwine because he’d heard that Hubbard and Sarah could be “returning to New York soon,” and that Heinlein would have advised Arwine earlier if he’d known they “were going to New York the first time.”

Heinlein said he had “no reason to be sore at Ron” and had no basis “to condemn his present actions,” but Hubbard’s conduct worried him. Heinlein cautioned Arwine that he could easily find himself “in some sort of a jam” if he let Hubbard “get too close to him.”

Heinlein asked Arwine about any plans to come out west, and said that his room at the Heinleins would be at his disposal.

Later in this letter, Heinlein asked Arwine to meet a “gal friend” of the Heinleins at La Guardia airport very early the next Monday morning, and escort her “to her destination in Manhattan.”  Heinlein explained that he was imposing on Arwine because “rape and mugging have becoming entirely too commonplace,” and the country is unsafe for “unescorted females.”  Heinlein asked Arwine to take care of the “young lady” on the same basis as if Heinlein’s wife Leslyn “were to arrive alone in the middle of the night.”

Heinlein recalled that Arwine had met the young lady, Vida Jameson, when Hubbard had brought her to Arwine’s “32nd Street place in the spring of 1940,”  on a night Heinlein and Leslyn had given a dinner party for Willy Ley, the de Camps and the Campbells.  Heinlein described Vida as a “quiet, shy little grey mouse with great soulful black eyes and a habit of listening.” He said that most of that evening Vida “sat beside Willy Ley on the couch on the east wall,” and that Arwine might not remember her as she “hardly opened her kisser all evening.”

Heinlein noted that Vida was the daughter of Malcolm Jameson, a retired “ordnance engineer” that Heinlein knew “because of his stories in Astounding and because he was part of the Fletcher Pratt Kriegspiel crowd.”

Heinlein said that he and his wife had again met Vida out in California, where she “received her discharge from the WAC.” Heinlein said that Hubbard had written her and suggested she become “the bookkeeper and business manager for Madcap Enterprises.” Heinlein wrote that “after a couple of months in a welter of unpaid bills, unanswered letters, and confused finances” in “the four or five companies which Jack, Sarah, and Ron had floated,” Vida was “pretty thoroughly browned off.” Nevertheless, she had been able to put some order in the enterprises and improve her health.

Heinlein said that even if Arwine couldn’t meet Vida at the airport, he still wanted them to get reacquainted, as he thought they’d “get much pleasure and benefit from each other’s company.” Heinlein said that Vida’s “evaluations” matched his and Leslyn’s “in an amazing number of ways,” and that he’d never seen Leslyn “take to another woman” so quickly. He wrote that he and Leslyn had become “pretty jaundiced about many people” since the war, especially women because so few “pulled their own weight in this war.” He implied that Vida was an exception, who knew “why she joined up,” that her reasons were also Arwine’s, and she had “knocked herself out about the way Leslyn did.” Heinlein described Vida as “sympatico” with the Heinleins politically, “a liberal and a hard-headed one, in no way infected with party-line, parlor pink nonsense.”

Heinlein updated this letter after a week, saying that he and Leslyn had brought Vida to stay with them, and that after getting the details of her flight schedule to New York, there was no reason now she had to be met. He said that Vida had “flatly vetoed the idea of being met” and that she was “extremely reluctant to impose on the good nature and gallantry of a comparative stranger.” He urged Arwine to still renew his acquaintence with Vida, which would make him “richer thereby.” Heinlein provided Vida’s address in the Bronx, and said that the he and Leslyn had spoken much to Vida of Arwine.

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